Lombax of the Future
by Geia Akyama
Summary: The Zoni have made all Lombax's slaves with the notable exception of Ratchet, a sleeping refugee in the Polaris Galaxy and a scholar returning from a newly discovered sector of space. Can they band together in time to keep Clank from being sacrificed?
1. Seer

Lombax of the Future written by Geia Akyama  
Chapter one-Seer

--

Footsteps echoed down a large vaulted hallway as a lone figure raced down it's vast metallic length with a wrapped bundle in her arms. Her loose white skirts swirled about her legs and the long tail slashed the air behind her as she tried to keep her balance and not lose any speed. The woman furtively looked over her shoulder and her orange stripped ears flick back at the sight of her pursuers.

Her once pristine white dress was torn and stained with sweat from her frenzied flight to this very place. The long sleeves and skirt were tattered shreds and the Imperial brand on her left forearm could easily be seen. The dark mark was a blemish of scared burnt flesh and scars darkened with black ink that marked her as a slave to the Zoni.

The cloth covered bundle in the fleeing woman's arms moved of its own accord and the hunter green blanket was shaken off to reveal a small Lombax child. In the little creatures' hands is a necklace made of a glowing white metal with a red triangular stone set in a Raritanium mount that had been carved into the shape of mythical beasts from a far off galaxy called Dolphins. The deceptively delicate chain was draped across the little girls trembling shoulders and a little hand clutched the treasure as though it were her very soul.

The heavily armored guards stomped after the fleeing Lombax slave woman as she makes her final dash for the portal where the doors to other dimensions awaits her. She had to get to that portal; she had to get her daughter to safety! The Zoni would never let a Seer live no matter how young the child was. Her dear baby- only recently a year old-had shown potential. But if the masters found out...

"Halt! Stay where you are, slave, and we promise a swift death!"

This palace slave had broken the taboo placed on her species and dared to come in contact with the ancient technology of her species. And the Dimensionator was the most forbidden thing they could violate with their presence. After coming to this dimension the Zoni had moved swiftly to make the great inverters into slaves with partial success.

The young child cried out in fear as the first blaster shot pierced the air a mere foot from the top of her head. Large blue eyes peered over her mothers shoulder as the shimmering archway portal leaped to life. The guards were so big and mean looking she was so scared. The child whimpered and buried her face in her mothers shoulder for comfort.

"Don't worry Ishara. We'll be safe soon enough!"

Blaster fire made the air sizzle as if it was alive and the pressure of the super heated molecules became nearly unbearable. The mother huddled around her child protectively and made her heavy legs obey her commands despite the painful stitch in her side. There was no way she' meekly let them kill her. Now when she held such a great treasure in her arms.

The shimmering archway was the only light source in the hallway and it wasn't until the full grown Lombax woman was practically inside the colossal room that she noticed the one person standing by the gateway. a small robot no bigger than her daughter turned to face the intruder with softly glowing green eyes and nearly expressionless face

the Mother cried out in anguish and stared in horror at the small robot as it turned slowly away from the portal to salvation. It was at that moment that the Lombax's luck ran out and a white hot blast from the Imperial guards hit her in the lower back just above the tail, cleanly severing her spine.

She crumpled to the floor like a wilted flower just before all feeling in her legs was lost. In a last act of defiance Helia flung her young daughter at the portal and lay bleeding on the ground. She hit the ground with a bone jarring thud and pain shot up her spine and exploded in her head with mind numbing after currents. So close, of only she could have taken those last steps.

The child cried sharply in fear and used her small tail as a rudder to land more or less on hands and knees facing her attackers with large scared eyes on her mother. She didn't' even notice Clank behind and to her right.

The small robot watched in horror as the Lombax was cut down and left to die. Ever since finding out what the Zoni truly were he'd resolved to return to Ratchet and somehow free all of the slaves in this alternate universe. However this dimensional portal would only admit one person at a time. It was either himself or this soon to be orphaned child and they both had equal need for the portal.

The guards stormed the room and quickly fanned out to make sure that there wasn't anyone else in the room. free Lombax's had been attacking the Zoni's stolen settlements and tensions in the palace where high after an almost successful attack on Clanks life in the past week

Clank squared his shoulders and turned to the poor girl. He'd seen her for the first time that morning and while he was unsure as to why her talent was a death sentence here. There was only one thing to be done; the girl had to be sent to a safe place.

The girls' clothes wee still in good condition. The standard white garments all slaves were requited to wear were whole and fit her small frame quite well. Only the necklace she wore was out of place. It was much too large for her, it was so bit she could almost wrap the chain around her waist twice and use it for a belt. Clank would have thought it belonged to the mother if he hadn't been told otherwise.

There was only one thing to do. Clank gestured to the terrified girl and gently took her by the hand, another death sentence to any slave. Another law he didn't understand. Another reason to send this child to a galaxy where she would stand a chance at a good life.

"Come here Ishara. You will be safe beyond this door. Do not be afraid, it can't be any worse than what you see here."

The poor girl only whimpered as she was lead to the portal and chewed on the fingers of her opposite hand. There were only a few moments before the guards turned their attention from the room to its occupants. So little time to get away.

"Dimensionator. Find home."

the portal swirled like a multicolored dream as worlds that were, could be, and that had been flashed by like smoke until at last a blue and green planet came into view and took up all available space. The oceans glittered in the planets bright sunlight and even from this space view great cities could be seen.

A wet cough drew Clank and Ishara's attention to the downed woman behind them and both turned to see the poor creature lifting her head with nearly black blood on her lips. A small pool of blood was gathering underneath the creatures' abdomen and her eyes blinked without seeing.

"Where...Ishara. Be safe... go... and live."

Laser fire terminated the sentence and the stench of burned flesh and fur filled the air along with the tangy smell of abject fear in perfect harmony to the doomed woman's last scream of pain echoed around the vault like room with a higher pitched wail from Ishara.

"The Imperial sire is here with a lone Lombax child! Terminate the slave immediately!"

Clank shoved the girl through the portal and watched with something close to sadness as the portal closed after her. If he closed his eyes he could still see the little one looking back at her mother with eyes full of tears. She was safe at least while he stayed behind as nothing more than a glorified captive of the Zoni.

"Ratchet, please come find me soon. This place needs our help."


	2. Sheela

Lombax of the Future written by Geia Akyama  
Chapter two-Sheela

--

In a large room filled nearly to the ceiling with crates of samples of the planet below and scientific equipment held down with cables woven from the toughest materials known in the galaxy a lone figure drifts aimlessly through the narrow aisles between the rows. Striped orange fur covered her body as it did with all Lombaxes though most probably didn't have cybernetic tails as this one did, and surely none were Splicers either.

Blue eyes were only half open as she mechanically went through the final check list for take off back to the Polaris Galaxy and somehow she'd gotten lost in her thoughts. The dark green armor she wore clung to her every curve and complemented her fur color nicely. Just from looking it was hard to tell that this wasn't a pure Lombax anymore.

Sheela shook herself from the light doze, which in the zero gravity environment she'd adopted while in observation of a class M planet meant she had just sent herself spinning about the large room in the underbelly of her ship. The agile creature twisted and turned in midair to get to a wall, box, or anything for that matter. Not being accustomed to floating freely she only sent herself spinning lazily near the ceiling without actually touching it.

Muttered curses echoed around the large room as the alien forced herself to calm down; maybe she was trying too hard. After all she'd been told many times on her home planet of Praxis II that Lombaxes often had their greatest achievements when they seemed to not actually try very hard at all. Now... what was it she'd been doing before she dozed off? Oh yes. Earth.

The third plant of the solar system she'd chosen to investigate was populated by what had to be an intelligent species. The beings of the world were quite unique too. They showed all the signs of pre-advanced space flight and she'd been lucky enough to watch a manned white and black Delta Wing space craft take off from the surface. The thing climbed higher through the planets thick atmosphere and began shedding parts of its rocket booster. Primitive at best but it seemed all they were capable of at the moment.

One Earth standard day after that monumental event the Lombax woman had to high tail it out of her orbit behind their moon because Fess, her ships computer, had projected it's trajectory directly toward her little hiding place. The adopted alien didn't have to go too far, after all a giant space telescope she'd been fascinated by provided the perfect cover.

That was three Ventiurian standard days ago, or 114 Earth hours. The pink, furless beings had sent a strange looking craft to the surface of the moon, a spiny spider-like thing, and what she witnessed was remarkable. Bulky white suits enshrouded the beings that called themselves Humans and they walked about the surface of their little satellite to check on various instruments placed by other ventures into space. They were already on their way back to their home planet.

Sheela bumped against one of the many crates in the cargo hold and grabbed on. Like most civilized space traveling species in the universe, and even a few of the barbarian races, her ship usually traveled with the artificial gravity generator on. But the primitive satellites circling the blue-green planet might pick up on her ships' unique energy signature.

So to avoid detection and learn as much as she could during her allotted time for this little expedition, Sheela had been forced to suffer through no gravity at all for the better part of seven weeks. And she still hadn't gotten that much better at controlling her motions in the open space of the cargo bay without holding onto something, but she practically flew like a bird through the rest of the Teiaiel.

"Madame Aten? I've decoded that signal from the newest satellite. It's music of this world from a Satellite Radio company that calls itself Sirius. A wide variety in fact. What language would you want to receive the signal in?"

Ah, Fess he worked so well. It was hard to believe that he was all set for the scrap yard because his former owner thrashed his positronic brain. Nothing a little tinkering couldn't fix. Mostly.

"Well I've only mastered English for the most part. So how about that?"

"Very good Madame. Now for the music in question..."

"Oh come on how many kinds of music can there really be on this planet?"

"Very well here's a sample of 'country' music."

A painful melody echoed through the ship like the wailing of Leviathans on the edge of death and Grepthroian folk music combined. The high pitched human singers' notes seared through the Lombaxes sensitive ears and pierced her brains with the ease of a predator tearing into its prey.

The woman held unto a loop of harness that would keep her samples from the planet below from shifting in Hyperspace with one hand and cringed in pain. This stuff was awful! That couldn't possibly be music! At least not any kind of music she cared to hear!

"For the love of bolts turn that off! It's going to ruin my ears!"

The wailing strains cut off in a squawk of static and blessed silence once again filled the ship. The only sounds were the generators keeping the atmosphere in the ship livable and the beleaguered Lombax scientists labored panting.

"I apologize Madame Aten. The Humans call that country music. Its similarities to some modern tortures should have been enough to warn me of any possible ill effects it would have on you."

The Lombax swallowed heavily and willed her blood to stop pumping though her veins so quickly and to control her breathing. Due to unwanted circumstances in her past DNA from a Razerbeast had been grafted onto her own genes.

The result had turned out quite bad for the cretins that had experimented on her. Until certain qualifications were met she would never truly be rid if that particular inner demon either. Without pure Lombax DNA she'd always be part Razerbeast. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the senseless blood rage that went with her rather astounding abilities as a Splicer.

It took a while but those raging impulses slowly receded to the back of her consciousness where they would stay more or less quietly until the next trigger event.

She pushed off the crate and floated through the air to the hatch leading to the rest of the ship she needed to get that foul medication those quacks had prescribed for her. Thankfully she rarely lost control of her bestial side so the need for that disgusting medication didn't arise often.

Through the halls silence reigned in the ship. Sheela could only imagine that it was because Fess had either overloaded his neural pathways by multi tasking again. Or that he simply was preoccupied with filtering out the signals he'd been decoding for her.

"Fess. I need you to take care of the rest of the preflight tasks, I need a break. The twenty four hour days I've been spending on the planet surface have upset my sleeping habits. And I need to take that little pill of mine."

The simulated male voice of her ships computer drifted after her as she palmed her private cabin open. The room was rather small. The cot was built into the wall and a small chest of drawers and a stand alone closet took up most of the space near the porthole she'd just gone through. To the right was another door with a small toiletry facility complete with sink and a sonic shower.

And there, hidden by other cleaning implements was a small brown bottle.

"Yes Madame Aten. The conference with your associates begins in forty-eight of this planet's hours. Would you like a mild sedative to enhance your sleeping pleasure?"

Sheila smiled broadly and gulped the bitter little pill down without water.

"Oh god yes. What do you have to offer?"


	3. Hiding in Plain Sight

Lombax of the Future written by Geia Akyama  
Chapter three-Hiding in plain sight

--

Sheela stretched from her fuzzy ears to her two toed feet after thirty-two earth hours of sedative induced sleep. The bones in her back and tail cracked as they were re-aligned with a painful but refreshing sort of way. She had sixteen Earth hours to finish her business on the surface, finish her report, and get ready for the trip back to the Polaris Galaxy.

"Good afternoon Madame Aten. The pre-flight checks are complete and a trajectory through the solar system and its Oort cloud has been set. We will be passing close enough to the largest planet in this solar system to get holographic pictures of the volcanic moon you noticed earlier. Also the data you collected from the satellite network has been translated from its original languages into the Galactic Standard for most civilized galaxies.

Sheela yawned with true feeling until her jaw cracked and stuffed her feet into her boots. Weeks of studying these Homo sapiens had been extremely fruitful but that was all coming to a close. It would one Earth solar year to return to the Polaris Galaxy but she wouldn't remember a thing or really age because of Cryosleep. Ah the wonders of technology, how she loved them so.

"That's good news Fess. Is the Holodisguise charged? I have one last errand on the surface to take care of before the conference. I never leave my debits unpaid."

There was silence as the Lombax floated toward the bridge of her ship to retrieve her disguise from its charging station under the flight console. The little box was battered and scratched from years of use and numerous calibrations. The most recent calibration was to appear as a human girl. Otherwise it made her look like another feline species, specifically the same species as the renowned captain of the Phoenix.

After all no one truly knew that Madame Sheela Aten was a Lombax. At least no one outside her small circle3 of close knit friends, or the little backwater city of Erodus on Praxus II but none of them wouldn't sell out just for the fame of knowing the only other Lombax in the galaxy beside Ratchet and she intended to keep it that way

"Madame... Are you sure it's wise to return to the surface? Some of the bacterial infections have proven quite debilitating to the humans and the one disease you contracted proved nearly fatal. I strongly advise against this excursion."

The Splicer groaned inwardly and reached under the pilots' seat for the earth clothing she'd scavenged. The material was rough, durable yet comfortable-perfect for the current weather in the place called California-and put it on over her evniro suit. There was no place for her tail to stick out in the denim pants so she left her tail inside the left leg of the baggy blue pants. The navy blue shirt fit loosely over her small frame and proclaimed a love for something or someone called P.O.D. on the front with an intricate design in the background.

"Duly noted Fess and disregarded. That was what they called a 'common cold' and nothing like it has been seen in the galaxy before therefore no one would be immune to it except for the humans. Besides that antibody you developed is still in effect. I must see Douglas and thank him properly for his help. It's the least I can do for him."


	4. Earth

Lombax of the Future written by Geia Akyama  
Chapter four-Earth

--

Sean Connell sighed and rubbed his burning eyes with the heels of his right hand. He was onto something with this new micro processor but somehow the key concept for making it work just slipped away just as he picked up his drafting pencil and put it on the page! Irritated and more than a little upset the twenty year old man threw his finely sharpened pencil on his faux teak desk and rocked his folding chair back on two legs.

Brilliant sunlight streamed through the high windows of his friends La Jolla home and filled the vault-like room with warm, welcoming light. Off white walls reflected the life giving rays of the sun into carefully cut glass prisms hanging in the middle of the room and spraying the walls with small rainbows that swung lazily across the room as time went by.

Striking chocolate brown eyes stared at the wallpapered ceiling with a dreamy lack of focus while spiked brown hair moved with the air currents caused by a standing fan; a smile crossed the boys sun tanned face. That girl. Ever since he met that strange girl he'd been driven to work on his project to get hired into one of the big computer companies, like maybe Microsoft or even that Japanese company Sony.

Though Sony didn't even make computers he was sure they'd love his idea for a laptop or something that ran alternately on solar energy, electrical power, and battery power. Imagine a PSP you could play and charge in the day and have it last through the night! You'd never need to plug it into a socket and all those go green fanatics would be that much happier with the reduced electricity use and acid waste from used batteries, maybe.

All four chair legs thumped nosily on the ground and the young man abandoned his blueprints and concept drafts to pad into the kitchen for a can of Coke and leftovers from last night. Always leftovers. He never had enough money to make it through from payday to payday. Hell he couldn't even afford to live in San Diego for that matter but it always paid to have friends in high places.

Tan board shorts slapped against well muscled legs as the youth tramped into his roommates living room and plopped down on the overstuffed couch with his Vanilla Coke and pizza. The brightly colored Ocean Pacifica shirt blended well with the couch and hid any tomato stains from previous pizza meals though nothing could hide the surfers build. Sean snorted around his lunch and flicked the wide screen TV on to catch the last part of the Padres game before trying to capture the last of his thoughts for the day.

Heshala. That girl popped up out of nowhere over a month ago asking questions, listening to his answers, and unlike all the other girls, she cared about what he had to say. All those other women saw him as Adam Lazzara's San Diego friend and tried to get close to him just to get closer to Adam. Sean wasn't that stupid, he knew a raw deal when he saw one.

Sean scoffed around his bite of pepperoni as the referee called a strike on an obviously bad pitch before that petite woman with the strange hat floated back into his mind.

A month ago he'd been struggling with his idea. Wanting to give up while at the same time desperately praying that somehow he'd get everything he needed to make his dream a reality. Where had he been? Oh yeah! He'd been bingeing on Starbucks coffee when this tourist walked up to him asking about something, couldn't remember what.

Didn't matter at all. That girl had turned his life around. he'd found a temporary job at Jamba Juice to pay his rent, started actually studying at Santa Barbra, and forged ahead with his pet project.

Two cans of coke and three slices of day-old pizza later lasted Sean to the end of the game and well past afternoon. The Padres has managed to pull a win in the last inning, thank god!, and Sean looked desolately at his little den of a room. Time to get back to the drawing board, again...

At least that was until the bell rang and a familiar voice sounded from the front door.

"Sean? Are you here? It's Heshala. I must tell you something important..."


	5. The real ET

Lombax of the Future written by Geia Akyama  
Chapter five-The real E.T.

----

Sheela fidgeted in front of the rather large property her human acquaintance lived on. the lush greenery rustled invitingly in the afternoon breeze and the multicolored flowers of all shapes and sizes gave off highly appealing scents to the Lombax's nose. All in all this was very much a place she'd love to live in if it weren't for the diseases that existed here and nowhere else.

In her human Guise the extraterrestrial looked like a young petite woman with plain features compared to others of the species. Sheela had taken great pains to make her human disguise perfect with slightly browned skin tone and eyes as far as possible from each other but still appealing to a few of the males like Douglas. Thankfully details like freckles, a small upturned nose and sheer lack of body hair were easily programmed and required next to no effort to maintain.

And what she couldn't hide with the hologuise she hid with some of the strange fashions this primitive species displayed. A large yellow hat shaped like her ears not only attracted some stares but encouraged the people not to notice if she brushed her ears against them. Mostly humans both young and old accused her of being a Poketard, whatever that was.

The gate chimed and opened to let Sheela walk up to the large house and the person waiting for her. She hadn't even gotten halfway to the front door when a tall, and nearly handsome in her opinion, man raced outside. Douglas had been extremely helpful to her during her studies. with his help she learned the ins and outs of the confusing English Language and a smattering of others. Why this species needed more that one planet wide language was beyond her.

"Sea Lamp! You've got no idea how worried I was about you. When you called to cancel our date I got worried. You sounded sick as a dog..."

Sheela cringed as the human mangled her name from 'Ivory of the Sea' to simply 'Sea Lamp'. Still, it was the closest he'd come to her true name. With some practice maybe the human mouth could make the proper sounds for the Standard Galactic language.

Douglas' strong arms wrapped around her in a crushing hug and she smiled as he swung her around with the biggest smile she'd yet seen on his face. The scientist frowned, she'd like to take him with her but that wasn't smart thing to do no matter how much she'd miss him. Being on the planet surface wasn't smart either, but it would be easy to stay in quarantine for the trip back to the Polaris Galaxy.

---

Doug smiled broadly as he scooped up his girlfriend and hugged her tightly to his chest. Last he'd heard from her was that she was staying at her place until she recovered from her cold. It had sounded more like the flu but he wasn't about to argue with what kind of stomach bug she'd been unlucky enough to catch..

His eyes fell on her necklace. It was a little big for her but she never took it off, not even when her clothes were soaked through. Two large chunks of polished red coral were set in silver with a small hinge connecting the two polished stones. The top stone was shaped like an egg and the lower one was a wide upside-down triangle that stopped just short of her carefully concealed cleavage. It matched her personality perfectly.

"Douglas~! Spine please!"

Doug chuckled and set his girl down on her feet and moved in for a quick kiss. Small, strong, and smart; just the way he liked his women. His smiled slipped when she put her gloved fingers gently on his lips to keep him from touching her lips. Her almost un-earthly blue eyes were clouded with concern and doubt as she looked up at him.

"Douglas I have to tell you something important. I can't stay here for much longer. I've got to go home now..."

Douglas' mouth hung open. She was leaving? They were just starting to have get to know each other! Had he done something wrong? He'd do anything to fix it! _ Just don't...leave...me like this._

His thoughts must have made their way to his face because she hastily went on with her declaration.

"It's not you Doug, I'd never blame you. Even with you I've been working..."

"Categorizing endangered species along the coast..." Douglas said glumly. She'd been using him like all the other girls he'd ever met.

"Partially. I wanted to see how the people here lived too. Please don't look so sad. I don't like to see you upset. I'll be back, I promise, I'll call you as soon as I get home."

Heshala smiled tentatively and partially closed her eyes. "I can stay with you till the sun sets though. My car should be out of the shop by then."

Douglas nodded slowly. He didn't even know where she lived. Every time he'd asked she beat around the bush saying she lived in an isolated area in the mountains across the Pacific. He'd been willing to overlook the strangeness of her answers in favor of her company but that still left him not knowing her phone number or her mailing address.

"Maybe we can go on that date I missed? I'm not at all happy with myself for missing it. I've never been to this Balboa Park before."

She was leaving but unlike all the others she sounded sincere. She was trying to make the pain of separation more bearable by doing something he wanted to do and she promised to get in touch with him again. That was more than anyone else had given him.

"Will I see you again?"

Douglas tried to keep both pain and suspicion from his voice and expression as he looked directly into her eyes. The sun would be going down in three hours. Just long enough to bet to the Organ Pavilion and eat before sundown.

"Of course. Even if I have to ignore the orders of my superiors I'll come back to you."


End file.
